The funny thing about Jacques Villeneuve

[webberf1]

There's no denying he's an opinionated old fella, but what amuses me is the way people react to him. If he says something that someone agrees with, they say 'look! Even J.V. says so, so it must be true! '. If he says something contrary to ones opinion, they immediately say 'will someone tell that useless old tw*t to stfu, no one cares what he thinks'.

[Koz]

JV is awesome!

I'm still awaiting his imminent return to and subsequent conquest of F1.

[dj_bytedisaster]

There's no denying he's an opinionated old fella, but what amuses me is the way people react to him. If he says something that someone agrees with, they say 'look! Even J.V. says so, so it must be true! '. If he says something contrary to ones opinion, they immediately say 'will someone tell that useless old tw*t to stfu, no one cares what he thinks'.

Not counting the fact that the bald headed idiot never said anything worth agreeing with... Opinionated he might be, so are Sterling Moss and the Scottish Lady - what's her name - yeah - Jackie Steward. But in contrast to NewHouse they actually achieved something in F1 other than walk the field in a ridiculously superior car. Seriously nobodyx ever taught him to STFU.

[SGWilko]

Not counting the fact that the bald headed idiot never said anything worth agreeing with... Opinionated he might be, so are Sterling Moss and the Scottish Lady - what's her name - yeah - Jackie Steward. But in contrast to NewHouse they actually achieved something in F1 other than walk the field in a ridiculously superior car. Seriously nobodyx ever taught him to STFU.

Like him or loathe him, JV made the transition from Indy/Cart to F1 where many others have failed. He also had the nous to make a shed load of money in the process.

[henners88]

Not counting the fact that the bald headed idiot never said anything worth agreeing with... Opinionated he might be, so are Sterling Moss and the Scottish Lady - what's her name - yeah - Jackie Steward. But in contrast to NewHouse they actually achieved something in F1 other than walk the field in a ridiculously superior car. Seriously nobodyx ever taught him to STFU.
I think it is rather ironic you criticising JV here with a similar tone he has used throughout the years, being disrespectful towards a racing legend (Stewart) in the process for good measure. The 'if you can't beat them join them' attitude probably shouldn't have been employed by yourself in this instance in all honesty lol.

[D-Type]

Let's face it there's highs and lows in JV's career - CART Champion, Indianapolis winner, F1 World Champion, 2nd at Le Mans which are counterbalanced by a further nine years in F1 where he was essentially a midfield driver and noticeable lack of success in NASCAR etc after leving F1 (apart from the 2nd at Le Mans). I think a lot can be put down to losing motivation after he had achieved the career peak of a F1 World Championship.
As an individual he has always been his own man and not been a 'corporate personality'.
He is entitled to his opinions and with his achievements I think he is entitled to express them. I may not agree with them but he has 'been there' and I haven't so I must respect them.

As for the intemperate criticism of two legendary drivers - they have 'been there' so their views should be respected even if we don't necessarily agree with them. Both Moss and Stewart survived an era where something like 1 in 3 Grand Prix drivers were killed.
Moss frequently prefaces his remarks with "It was different in my day ..." or similar and he clearly prefers things the way they were (as do many people at his age, but less publicly).
In addition to winning three World Championships and coming 2nd in two, Jackie Stewart made himself unpopular by spearheading a campaign for driver safety, advocating such measures as Armco barries rather than exposed trees that a car could hit if it went off and advocating passive safety in cars, eg impact resistance. What he has frequently said is that he never intended that a culture would develop where it is OK to deliberately collide with another car because the cars' construction and the safety berriers mean he won't get killed or seriously injured.

These views may seem strange and unplateable to someone who has grown up with the televised "Formula 1 show" and never seen racing live or seen other forms of racing televised, but it doesn't mean they are necessarily invalid.

[Bagwan]

A lot of folks diss JV , for having won his only title in a great car .

But then , you are only offered a great car if you're good enough , and he was .

He left Williams when they gave the WDC a crap car .

He never had a car that wasn't crap after that .


So , I guess you can either diss him , or realize he actually made the most of what he was given , as he was given crap for all the rest of the time he was in F1 .

[henners88]

Its also worth noting that even though he was opinionated around the paddock, at least he showed some personality. F1 needs people like Jacques IMO.

[zako85]

Let's face it there's highs and lows in JV's career - CART Champion, Indianapolis winner, F1 World Champion, 2nd at Le mans wh9ich are counterbalanced by a further nine years in F1 where he was essentially a midfield driver and noticeable lack of success in NASCAR etc after leving F1 (apart from the 2nd at Le Mans). I think a lot can be put down to losing motivation after he had achieved the career peak of a F1 World Championship.
As an individual he has always been his own man and not been a 'corporate personality'.
He is entitled to his opinions and with his achievements I think he is entitled to express them. I may not agree with them but he has 'been there' and I haven't so I must respect them.


I would disagree about JV losing motivation since winning his first WDC. Contrary, I think one has to have serious motivation to stay in F1 for so long driving decidedly midfield rides having already won a championship. An older WDC would just quit or at least skip a year when there is no front running ride available for him (like Kimi 2010, Prost 1992, Mansell 1993). Many other WDCs who were stuck with a non-competitive rides quit F1 soon after realizing that (Damon Hill, Schumacher), but JV continued for 9 years. Clearly, he was young and hungry to have this sort of motivation.

[truefan72]

Let's face it there's highs and lows in JV's career - CART Champion, Indianapolis winner, F1 World Champion, 2nd at Le mans wh9ich are counterbalanced by a further nine years in F1 where he was essentially a midfield driver and noticeable lack of success in NASCAR etc after leving F1 (apart from the 2nd at Le Mans). I think a lot can be put down to losing motivation after he had achieved the career peak of a F1 World Championship.
As an individual he has always been his own man and not been a 'corporate personality'.
He is entitled to his opinions and with his achievements I think he is entitled to express them. I may not agree with them but he has 'been there' and I haven't so I must respect them.

As for the intemperate criticism of two legendary drivers - they have 'been there' so their views should be respected even if we don't necessarily agree with them. Both Moss and Stewart survived an era where something like 1 in 3 Grand Prix drivers were killed.
Moss frequently prefaces his remarks with "It was different in my day ..." or similar and he clearly prefers things the way they were (as do many people at his age, but less publicly).
In addition to winning three World Championships and coming 2nd in two, Jackie Stewart made himself unpopular by spearheading a campaign for driver safety, advocating such measures as Armco barries rather than exposed trees that a car could hit if it went off and advocating passive safety in cars, eg impact resistance. What he has frequently said is that he never intended that a culture would develop where it is OK to deliberately collide with another car because the cars' construction and the safety berriers mean he won't ket killed or seriopusly injured.

These views may seem strange and unplateable to someone who has grown up with the televised "Formula 1 show" and never seen racing live or seen other forms of racing televised, but it doesn't mean they are necessarily invalid.


well said :up:
I've always liked JV, yes a knucklehead at times behind the mic, but one of the few, along with Hakkinen that Schumi feared. If JV had moved to ferrari, mclaren, betton, or stayed at williams (surviving thorugh 2 more terrible Williams seasons, lets face it they were terrible in those years) we would be talking about a historic career. There was no doubting his talent. yes temperamental, but insanely talented.

[Roamy]

A lot of folks diss JV , for having won his only title in a great car .

But then , you are only offered a great car if you're good enough , and he was .

He left Williams when they gave the WDC a crap car .

He never had a car that wasn't crap after that .


So , I guess you can either diss him , or realize he actually made the most of what he was given , as he was given crap for all the rest of the time he was in F1 .


Also many fail to realize that he has almost won many times on road courses in Nascar.. It is a shame he had no permanent ride in Nascar. He is quite accomplished and like it or not he will be around for a while longer. I suspect he will do the road courses again in Nascar and he is great to watch. He is also driving a Ferrari in the French GT series but I can't find
any results. If you are given a great car you still have to drive it. He did !!!!

[webberf1]

Very cool interview between JV and Damon Hill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUU8QluLIMA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Lol come off it Dj Byte. As someone said, you're displaying the same qualities you claim JV to have.

[Ranger]

Not counting the fact that the bald headed idiot never said anything worth agreeing with... Opinionated he might be, so are Sterling Moss and the Scottish Lady - what's her name - yeah - Jackie Steward. But in contrast to NewHouse they actually achieved something in F1 other than walk the field in a ridiculously superior car. Seriously nobodyx ever taught him to STFU.

Villeneuve translates as Newtown not Newhouse. :)

As for Jacques, this is a very good article about him:
http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/villeneuve/

[D28]

With JV it is important to separate the personality, fair game for criticism, from his actual driving record, much harder to disparage. He won races in too many series, Atlantic, CART, F1 for it to be simply the best car. He came within a whisker of equaling G. Baghetti's feat of winner first time out. He still shares some rookie records with L Hamilton.
The whole idea is for drivers to get themselves into the beast equipment, even JMF and Mario Andretti worked on this ( I am not for a minute suggesting JV is in that class, just pointing out the obvious).
As a one time WC it is not fair to suggest it was all due to a vastly superior car. The same could be said for others, Denny Hulme comes to mind, but seldom is.
He is certainly competitive in NASCAR Nationwide and has led many laps at the Montreal circuit; the last time I watched he was unceremoniously punted off the track on the last restart. These things happen in NASCAR, but Roger Penske would be unlikely to hire him for the ride were he not sure of his abilities.
So take whatever he said with a grain of salt, or ignore it completely.

[wedge]

He won races in too many series, Atlantic, CART, F1 for it to be simply the best car.

Penske cleaned up CART in 1994. JV made a name for himself by mixing it up and getting a win that year.

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